Ringabel Makes Bad Choices
by sanctum-c
Summary: Ringabel is bored - and wants to read D's Journal. Pity it's in the girl's room and they're out...


_Written for harb for the prompt: Ringabel and Tiz getting into trouble (or Ringabel dragging Tiz into trouble)._

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Ringabel did not have a convincing answer why he could not wait until Agnes and Edea came back to the inn to read D's Journal. At least not as far as Tiz could see. The problem, Ringabel elaborated, was that Edea had borrowed the mystery tome earlier that same day and not returned it before she and Agnes left on some diversion or other. Some hours later and there was something in there Ringabel wanted to look at right this second. And no amount of distraction or waiting would satisfy him. That lead to Ringabel knocking on the girls' room door and waiting for an expected lack of response.

Tiz repeated his question of why now as Ringabel inched the door open. "I merely wished to peruse the journal to pass the time." Ringabel answered as he wandered inside without pausing, leaving Tiz to dither on the threshold. The four of them had spent many occasions in each other's rooms over the course of the journey. It was normally done with the others present however, and did not involve sneaking in while they were sure the others were out.

"Why not go out like you normally do?"

Ringabel's shoulders sagged and he shot Tiz an exasperated look. "I thought it was well known that my personal finances will not currently stretch to the kind of date I would feel fitting." He shrugged. "I cannot operate on a shoestring."

Tiz scratched at his head. "Which girl did you plan on taking out?"

Another look. "If you must know I had not really decided. It doesn't matter though. The sooner we find the book, the sooner we can be away."

Tiz closed the door with a sigh and followed Ringabel. Agnes and Edea were generally neat, somewhat unlike the hurricane that was Ringabel in every room they had stayed in. More so on the occasions when he did feel financially stable enough to go out dating. Ringabel crouched to check under the beds. "Aren't you a little worried about what Edea will do when she finds the book isn't here? And that you now have it?"

Ringabel scrabbled under the first bed and emerged between the two. "Not in the slightest." He attempted to repair his disturbed pompadour with one hand. "If my dear Edea appears to be in a good mood, I may even admit my trespass." He peered under the other bed. "In such a circumstance, I would request that you corroborate my otherwise excellent behaviour and mild invasion of privacy." He raised an eyebrow until Tiz nodded.

"And if she's in a bad mood?"

"In that eventuality-" Ringabel stared into the distance for a moment. "In that case, I will pretend that she gave it back to me this morning and had forgotten that detail." He ducked under the bed.

"That's pretty underhanded."

"Yes, but preferable to the bruising." The furniture muffled Ringabel's voice. He emerged frustrated a moment later sans book and studied the room again. "Where can it be?"

Tiz walked to the door and glanced out. Nothing he could see or hear to suggest a problem. "Are you sure there is nothing else you could read?"

"Of course that is an option. But there may yet me clues and hints within the journal we have yet to detect." Ringabel seemed to be running out of possible locations that did not involve opening any storage spaces. He checked behind the curtains (twice), under both beds again, under the pillows, under the mattresses. Even – in what had to be desperation – the bathroom. Nothing. "In addition," Ringabel added absently as he re-entered the main room and stared at the cupboard. "I have found fiction cannot invoke the sheer power of the prophesied words of that mysterious tome."

Not much Tiz could say to that. "Just please hurry up." Leaving right now would be the best. He could leave Ringabel behind to his near inevitable discovery by Agnes, Edea, or both. Leave him to the inevitable conflict and the awkward mood that would result. Then some feigning ignorance and hoping no one asked how he could let Ringabel go and root around this room. Not an easy conversation either. Tiz glanced at the door as Ringabel pulled the cupboard open. "Ringabel?"

"We'll be quick." He held up a bag and squeezed it. "And please note my method of checking a bad without opening it for no good reason." Another squeeze. "This bag is too soft to contain a book; I would guess it contains nothing but clothing. Very fine clothing." He squeezed the bag again. "In fact this might well contain Edeas'-"

"If it's not that one, then move on." Tiz grabbed the nearest bag. Best to try and get this out the way as fast as possible. No hard book-shaped objects in the first bag he checked. Next bag. Despite Ringabel's proclamation, this was not as simple as he made it sound. Many of the bags were hard-wearing and not easily squishable.

"Ah ha!" Ringabel squeezed his current bag in triumph. "This one!" He opened the bag and withdrew a book. A thick, dusty hard-back with yellowing pages; not D's Journal. Most of the spine was missing and there was no title on the grey cover. "Curious. What do we have-" Ringabel flipped the book open and rifled through a few pages, gaze flicking back and forth as his grin grew larger. "Oh ho!" He smiled at Tiz. "How scandalous." He flipped over a few more pages. "My dearest Edea has been reading some most stimulating reading material."

"Um. Ringabel-" Tiz cut himself off as someone fumbled with the lock on the door. Ringabel's grin vanished in the same moment.

"Hide!"

Tiz threw himself to the floor and rolled under the nearest bed. Ringabel seemed to pause for eternity he threw the bag back into the cupboard but kept hold of the book as he dove for the other bed. A split-second later the door opened. Footsteps approached the bed and Tiz's heart pounded in his chest. A glimpse of booted feet and then- The springs above Tiz creaked as something landed on them with force. "So tired!" Edea grumbled. She shifted and something slammed into the floor beside Tiz's head with so much force he almost called out. He counted to ten and turned his head; D's Journal lay beside the bed. He raised his head; Ringabel did not look sufficiently contrite.

"We should go check in with Tiz and Ringabel," Agnes said. Her boots were visible at the end of the other bed. Not good; their rooms were too close to try and follow them out.

"Especially if we want an early start," Airy chipped in.

Edea groaned. "Not after all that walking. We head off when we wake up. And after breakfast." The springs creaked again. "Can we relax before dealing with Ringabel? Please?" The man in question bristled, but said nothing.

"I suppose," Agnes replied. "I think I will take a bath then." The other bed creaked.

"Sounds like a great idea," Edea replied. "We can share the water if you're okay with that?" No response; had Agnes nodded? Must have done; Agnes's feet moved away and water started running in the bathroom. "Do Cryst fairies like baths?" Edea added a moment later.

"Sometimes," Airy replied.

"Well, I suppose you can come too."

The rushing water almost masked the whispery rustling and muffled thuds as clothing dropped to the floor. Tiz focused on the bedsprings. Bare feet padded to and from the bed a few times as Agnes and Edea prepared to bathe. A short eternity later, the water shut off and the girls' voices took on an echo. Time to escape. Tiz shifted the blankets. No one in sight. Some splashes of water and drifting steam from the ajar bathroom door. No sign of Edea, Agnes or Airy. Ringabel stuck his head out from under the bed, shot a look at D's journal and then up to Tiz who shook his head; Ringabel shrugged. A tense moment as Tiz unlaced his boots and pulled them off, wobbling on one leg as he did so. Couldn't trust the mattress or the bed-frame to not betray their presence. Ringabel caught on and mirrored his action, but despite everything he was still clutching the book he found. What about it intrigued him so?

Tiz pointed from the book and the cupboard; Ringabel looked disheartened but nodded. He padded towards it while Tiz made for the door. Which floorboards creaked? They had not paid any attention to such a concern on the way in. The near-squeak of a stiff hinge sent Tiz's heart into his throat. He tensed. The conversation in the bathroom continued without interruption. Tiz glanced back; Ringabel stood stiff beside the cupboard. Tiz shook his head again and Ringabel nodded.

The door at least did not squeak at all and Tiz made it to the hall, sighing in relief. Ringabel had drawn level with the bathroom when the door opened. Tiz leapt out of sight. "Edea!" Ringabel said in far too loud a voice.

"Caught red-handed," Edea growled. "And here I was thinking that maybe I could start trusting you." She make a disgusted noise in her throat. "Spying on girls in the bath? You are low, Ringabel. You really are black as pitch!"

"I can explain; it's not like that." Ringabel was desperate. "I just-"

"And what is that?"

"This?" Ringabel's tone changed and became more confident. "I have discovered your shameful secret."

"Shameful secret? What shameful secre-" Edea's breath caught and she growled again. "Where do you draw the line Ringabel? Sneaking into our room and trying to spy on us in the bath not enough for you? You want to leave your smut in here too?"

The squeak from the bathroom confirmed Tiz's previous suspicion of whose bag Ringabel had found the book in; assuredly not Edea's. Tiz crept away as the voices got louder and Ringabel tried vainly to explain what happened. It did not appear to be helping.


End file.
